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I spent most of Sunday watching the replay of American Pharoah’s Belmont tour de force and more significantly relishing the crowd’s reaction to this event each time I saw it. There are multiple Youtube fan perspectives of what they saw and what happened around them during his effortless strides down the lane in which he left the very nice colt Frosted and the others in his dust. Collectively these images and the swelling sound from the stands as his victory became more and more certain capture a jubilation that we rarely allow ourselves or see in others.
Webster’s defines jubilation as “an act of rejoicing; an expression of great joy” and as American Pharoah dispatched his rivals in one of the fastest Belmont’s ever and then was paraded by Victor Espinoza down the length of the stands and finally took his spot in the winner’s circle, we all witnessed and hopefully felt in our homes, backyards, bars – wherever we saw the race – pure jubilation. Was it because the owners of Secretariat, Affirmed, and Seattle Slew were there and were graciously supportive of having another member in their exclusive Triple Crown club? Was it simply that ...